This invention relates to adjustable-length fasteners such as bolts for fastening water closets for toilets and the like to floors and walls.
Fastening water closets such as toilets and urinals is accomplished conventionally with a fastener T-bolt having a flat T-head that is inserted into a T-slot in a base of toilet bowl or urinal. A threaded shank of the T-bolt is extended upwardly through a floor or horizontally through a wall from the base to where a fastener nut is threaded onto the threaded shank. An aesthetic cover such as a hollow cone is positioned over the fastener nut and a portion of the threaded shank that extends beyond the fastener nut.
However, the problem with the conventional closet fasteners occurs from the length of the threaded shank which must be sufficiently long to extend upward through flooring, whether the flooring be thick tiles or thin vinyl or thin tile. Being long enough for extension through the thickest of flooring leaves typically an excess length of approximately an inch of threaded shaft that must be cut off after the bowl is positioned and sealed in place in order for typical aesthetic covers to be positioned over the threaded shank and fastener nut while a base of the aesthetic cover is positioned against a surface of the base of the toilet bowl or urinal. Cutting off the excess length takes considerable time and care to accomplish without disrupting the seal or positioning of the bowl. It is a fatigue factor to this aspect of plumbing. Providing fastener T-bolts that are the right length is not practical because there are so many unforeseeable variables in floor thicknesses.
A known attempt to solve this problem was a joint and telescoping bolt assembly described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,298, issued to Worley on Dec. 31, 1968. Different from an internally threaded length-adjustment sleeve and an externally threaded length-adjustment bolt of the present invention, the Worley device was limited to a telescopic member that was threaded both internally and externally.
No other known prior art addresses and solves this problem with sufficient similarity to the present invention to merit comparison or citation.
Bolt-length problems of fastening closets to floors and walls have continued to exist.